One of the most popular bands to emerge from the 90s Seattle grunge revolution, Soundgarden sold 22 million albums and won two Grammy awards.

Having disbanded in 1997, the band reunited in 2010 and, after subsequent live shows and the success of their Telephantasm compilation, released King Animal, their first studio album in 16 years.

Tragically it was announced today that Chris has died at the age of 52. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.

He spoke to the Mirror's Gavin Martin in 2012 about his dark days during the band’s time apart, including a spell in rehab.

“It’s something that would have happened even if Soundgarden had stayed together,” he admitted.

“It was a long slow slide and then a long slow recovery, but there was self-discovery too.

“For me it was mostly alcohol – from my late teens until my late thirties.”

(Image: Getty)

Chris added that “near the end of Soundgarden I started to unravel a lot more than I had previously”, but he then went on to even greater success fronting the supergroup Audioslave with members of Rage Against The Machine.

As a solo artist he’s also made four albums, recorded the theme for the James Bond movie Casino Royale and worked with R&B producer Timbaland.

“I came out of rehab,” Chris recalls, “and immediately went on tour with Audioslave, sold millions of records and was playing in front of crowds of 10,000 or 20,000.

"It’s not what most people go through. Most of the time, coming out of rehab people have a destroyed life, struggle to just work again and get a job.

“I sort of had an identity sitting there waiting to be embraced.

"I was very lucky I was able to see that and not take it for granted. It helped me climb out of the mire. I saw how hard it could be.”

(Image: Getty)

He may have been on a tough personal journey, but Chris says reuniting with his old bandmates was easy because, despite the long years apart, there had never been any animosity.

“We remained good friends,” he explains. “That’s significant. After sitting in a room for three minutes it was obvious we all still got along.”

The band have all grown up in their time apart – Cornell has had three children, two marriages and one acrimonious divorce – but he insists that financial inducements didn’t play a part in Soundgarden’s comeback.

“In fact, once we got back together,” he says, “we had offers to play numerous festivals for millions of dollars but we turned them down.”